WEDNESDAY, March 23 – A new study helps explain how some lung cancers become resistant to targeted drug therapy. Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center analyzed tumor samples from 37 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, and identified two new genetic changes associated with resistance. They also confirmed resistance-related genetic changes identified in previous studies. The MGH team also discovered that the cellular nature of some tumors changes in response to treatment and that genetic mutations associated with drug resistance can disappear after treatment is halted. The findings highlight the importance of monitoring the molecular status of lung cancer tumors throughout the treatment process, the researchers said. "It is really remarkable how much we oncologists assume about a tumor based on a single biopsy ... Read more

THURSDAY, Jan. 20 – The rate of depression among cancer patients may be lower than previously believed, a new study indicates. An international team of researchers analyzed 94 studies involving more than 14,000 patients and found that about one-sixth of cancer patients suffer depression and about one-third have a more widely defined mood disorder. Only modest rates of depression and anxiety occurred in cancer patients in the first five years after diagnosis, which suggests that depression is not inevitable in these patients, the researchers said. Only when it was combined with other mood disorders was depression common, occurring in 30 percent of hospitalized cancer patients. The study is published online Jan. 19 in The Lancet Oncology. Rates of depression and anxiety were not significantly different between patients receiving palliative care (care designed to ease pain and increase ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19 – More than 40 percent of cancer survivors experience pain, and the risk is highest among black and female patients, finds a new study. Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System surveyed nearly 200 U.S. cancer survivors and found that 43 percent had experienced pain since their diagnosis, and 20 percent suffered chronic cancer-related pain at least two years later. Among white patients, the most significant source of pain was cancer surgery (53.8 percent), and among black patients the greatest source of pain was cancer treatment (46.2 percent), according to the report. In addition, the study found that compared to men, women had more pain, more pain flare-ups, more disability due to pain and were more depressed because of pain. The authors also noted that black patients were more likely to report greater severity of pain and more pain-related ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 29 – Consider this: Lung cancer is the most deadly form of cancer in the United States, killing about 157,300 people every year – more than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It is also the nation's second leading cause of death, second only to heart disease. And yet lung cancer attracts fewer federal research dollars per death than the other leading forms of cancer demise. Doctors have yet to find a reliable method for screening for lung cancer. And new treatments for lung cancer roll out at a snail's pace compared with therapies for other cancers. So why does the top cancer killer attract so little attention? Largely because people are perceived to have done this to themselves, garnering little public sympathy, said Kay Cofrancesco, director of advocacy relations for the Lung Cancer Alliance, a national ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 15 – Genes that predict length of survival and help guide treatment for patients with non-small cell lung cancer have been identified by U.S. researchers. The investigators took samples of lung tumors and nearby healthy lung tissue from 30 patients and examined the samples for the presence of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) associated with 48 known genes for molecules called nuclear hormone receptors. They then compared the active genes with patient outcomes and found that the expression of genes for certain nuclear hormone receptors helped predict patient survival. According to the results, patients with two specific nuclear hormone receptors in their tumor tissue lived the longest. The two "biomarkers" were the short heterodimer partner and the progesterone receptor. "Patient responses to cancer treatment vary widely and often depend on subtle biological differences ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 10 – Whites and blacks in the United States are much more likely to develop lung cancer than other racial/ethnic groups, a new federal study finds. Researchers analyzed 1998 to 2006 data from 38 states and the District of Columbia. They found that the annual incidence of lung cancer per 100,000 people was 76.1 for blacks, 69.7 for whites, 48.4 for American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs), 38.4 for Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 37.3 for Hispanics. People ages 70 to 79 had the highest incidence of lung cancer at about 463 cases per 100,000. Incidence was highest in the South (76 percent) and lowest in the West (about 59 percent), the study found. Among whites, the highest incidence of lung cancer was in the South (76.3). The highest rates among blacks (88.9), AI/ANs (64.2) and Hispanics (40.6) were in the Midwest. The highest rates among Asian Pacific Islanders was in the ... Read more

MONDAY, Nov. 8 – New research suggests that lung cancer in people who have never smoked may be a different disease than it is in smokers. Scientists compared the genetic characteristics of lung cancer tumors in 30 people who never smoked to tumors in 53 smokers or former smokers. The tumors of people who had never smoked had twice as many DNA abnormalities as people who were current or former smokers, said study author Kelsie Thu, a doctoral candidate at the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver. "This is suggesting there might be something different going on with tumors in never-smokers," Thu said. "If we find out lung cancer in never-smokers is a different disease and we can identify what those differences are, maybe we can design specific therapies that target the genetic alterations in never-smokers and improve the prognosis." The study was to be presented Monday at ... Read more

THURSDAY, Nov. 4 – Annual screening for lung cancer with low-dose CT scans cut mortality rates in older, current or former heavy smokers by 20 percent, a major U.S. government study finds. Given the large numbers of Americans who fall ill from lung cancer – the nation's leading cancer killer – a 20 percent drop in deaths could be significant, experts noted. And, unexpectedly, annual CT screening also cut deaths from any cause by 7 percent, according to the $250 million National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), sponsored by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI). That benefit has yet to be explained, NCI Director Dr. Harold Varmus said during a news conference Thursday. The results, which were announced at the news conference and published in the Nov. 4 issue of Radiology, were significant enough to trigger an early halt to the trial once the scans' benefits became clear. "Lung cancer ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 27 – An experimental cancer drug is proving effective in treating the lung cancers of some patients whose tumors carry a certain genetic mutation, new studies show. Because the mutation can be present in other forms of cancer – including a rare form of sarcoma (cancer of the soft tissue), childhood neuroblastoma (brain tumor), as well as some lymphomas, breast and colon cancers – researchers say they are hopeful the drug, crizotinib, will prove effective in treating those cancers as well. In one study, researchers identified 82 patients from among 1,500 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, the most common type of lung malignancy, whose tumors had a mutation in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene. Crizotinib targets the ALK "driver kinase," or protein, blocking its activity and preventing the tumor from growing, explained study co-author Dr. Geoffrey ... Read more

THURSDAY, Oct. 21 – Over the next decade, the growth in demand for radiation therapy in the United States will be 10 times greater than the increase in new radiation oncologists, a difference that could affect cancer patients' access to treatment, according to a new study. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of patients requiring radiation therapy will increase 22 percent but the number of full-time radiation oncologists entering the workforce will increase just 2 percent, said researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and colleagues. They based their predictions on projections that this year 3,943 radiation oncologists will treat an estimated 470,000 patients in the United States. The large increase in demand for radiation therapy will be partly due to growing numbers of older adults and minorities, groups in which certain types of cancers are more ... Read more

MONDAY, Oct. 11 – Many cancer patients with pain or depression also experience physical symptoms, such as fatigue, dry mouth and nausea, that can cause disability, a new study shows. Doctors need to recognize and treat these symptoms in order to improve quality of life for cancer patients, said Dr. Kurt Kroenke, of the Richard Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indiana University, and Regenstrief Institute Inc. in Indianapolis, and colleagues. They analyzed data from 405 cancer patients who had either pain or depression and found that all the patients had at least one of 22 physical symptoms examined in the study. More than half of patients reported 15 of the 22 symptoms. The most common symptoms were fatigue (97.5 percent), difficulty sleeping (about 79 percent), pain in limbs or joints (78 percent), back pain (nearly 75 percent) and memory problems (72 percent). The patients also reported ... Read more

TUESDAY, Sept. 28 – Despite previous findings to the contrary, new research indicates that black patients with non-small cell lung are as likely to harbor a specific mutation in tumors as white patients. This means that black patients should be at least as likely as white patients to benefit from highly effective therapies that target the mutation, such as the drug known as erlotinib, the researchers said. "This study has immediate implications for patient management," Ramsi Haddad, director of the Laboratory of Translational Oncogenomics at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, said in a news release from the American Association for Cancer Research. The mutation involves the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein, which is seen in abnormally high numbers on the surface of cancer cells and associated with cancer spread. EGFR mutations increase the tumor's ... Read more

TUESDAY, Aug. 31 – Eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables may help protect some smokers from lung cancer, a new European study suggests. But, the researchers stressed that quitting smoking will do far more to reduce risk than "an apple a day" or having a salad for lunch. In the study, participants who ate a diet that contained a diverse mix of fruits and vegetables appeared to have a 27 percent lowered risk of a common type of lung cancer, the researchers reported. "First and foremost, the best way to reduce one's risk of lung cancer is to quit smoking. That is of paramount importance," said principal investigator Dr. H. Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita, project director of cancer epidemiology at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands. "However, we realize that there are still millions worldwide who cannot and don't want to quit smoking. To just ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, July 7 – One patient found out he had cancer by reading his radiology report. Another got the news when her neurologist called to say he had arranged for her to see a neurosurgeon. When she asked why, the doctor told her she had a brain tumor and hung up. A third learned she had breast cancer listening to her answering machine with her grandson sitting on her lap. A new study about how people learn of cancer diagnoses finds that many doctors have poor communication skills and often leave patients stranded with devastating information about a deadly illness, sometimes in a public setting. One-third of the cancer patients in the U.S. National Cancer Institute study recalled being told on the phone, in an emergency room, radiology department or other public hospital setting that they had cancer, most often leukemia, lymphoma or brain tumors. "It's really dismaying to think that ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, June 23 – Advanced lung cancer is notoriously hard to treat, but a team of Japanese scientists reports that a cancer drug known as Iressa was significantly more effective than standard chemotherapy for patients with a certain genetic profile. These patients have an advanced form of the most common type of lung cancer – non-small cell lung cancer – and a mutation of a protein found on the surface of certain cells that causes them to divide. This protein – known as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) – is found in unusually high numbers on the surface of some cancer cells. The researchers focused on gefitinib (Iressa), which stops the protein receptor from sending a message to the cancer cells to divide and grow. In their study, reported in the June 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the drug had a better safety profile and improved survival time with no ... Read more